So I have been using pilotedge while I work on my instrument rating in real life and it has been fantastic! I have completed all of the I-ratings and now i am just making up random flights for practice. I am scheduled to take my IFR checkride in real life next week so I am looking to practice as much as possible before the real thing. So i am anticipating taking off, intercepting and tracking a radial, flying a published or non published hold, then coming back for 3 approaches. What would be the best way to simulate this on pilotedge? I would like to do the entire flight under IFR conditions, so flying the approaches as practice approaches under VFR (like we will probably do in real life) isnt very practicable. Also, is it possible to request an unpublished hold from the controllers for practice? Any advice or insights? Thanks!

You are more than welcome to inject your own weather conditions to the sim. So load it up with full IMC. As far as what you’re looking to do, might I suggest SNA-CRQ? The route makes you join V23 shortly after departure, then on to OCN then you can shoot the ILS approach into CRQ, go missed and head up to LGB or SNA for as many approaches as you want.

As for holding, just request it from the controller. You can request either a published or non published hold. OCN would probably be a good place to hold if you fly the route I suggested above.

Thanks for the suggestion! Will definitely give that route a try. That is pretty much what I was looking for. Just trying to simulate the checkride as much as possible. If I intend on flying multiple missed approaches for practice should I mention it in the remarks? Or just tell the controller each time that I intend to go missed. I didn't know if that would be annoying or distracting to the controllers. Thanks for the replies!

tjconti12 wrote:Thanks for the suggestion! Will definitely give that route a try. That is pretty much what I was looking for. Just trying to simulate the checkride as much as possible. If I intend on flying multiple missed approaches for practice should I mention it in the remarks? Or just tell the controller each time that I intend to go missed. I didn't know if that would be annoying or distracting to the controllers. Thanks for the replies!

Treat it like the real world. It's not uncommon to shoot multiple approaches for currency or initial training. You can put "mutiple approaches" in the remarks if you wish, but either way, you should give the controller a heads up that you'd like "multiple approaches, starting with the [insert approach name]..."

This way, they can give you alternate missed instructions ahead of time, and coordinate with the tower that it'll be a low approach, etc.

I this mentioned route hard to do? I know how to read my instruments but I haven't even started the I Ratings yet. It sounds like it would be a good one to practice and is a route that is commonly used for such things.

Thanks for the replies! I flew the suggested route and ended up coming up with more. I am happy to say I did end up passing my checkride in real life. I feel pilotedge helped make that happen! I have recommended it to everyone at my school. Thanks again for everything!